Downtown Druid

Chapter 48: Meet me in the Maw

Chapter 48: Meet me in the Maw

Dantes and Jacopo crawled through the tunnels, leading a horde of rats and roaches. Dantes had almost no difficulty adjusting to being a rat, but in spite of that he had a bit of trouble keeping up as Jacopo led them through the quickest and most efficient route to Orc territory. It was what amounted to nighttime in the Pit, and the majority of the Orcs were asleep, though around ten had gone on a hunt for beasts with Blud. He had tracked them until they were too far away to make a difference in what was about to happen.

They exited not at the entrance to the orcish territory, but rather slightly behind it. Four orcs stood at the entrance, alert and ready for any counterattack that the collared or dwarves might be planning to mount. Dantes ignored them, spreading out his four or six legged allies across the space. It was difficult, controlling this many, and his favor was burning up quickly, but he had plenty for what he was planning.

He moved through the territory toward the first of his targets. His visits to the Orc gang had been infrequent, but hed been scouting them since theyre increase in aggression and so it was familiar to him. In one corner a giant spider and kobold had been butchered for their meat and distributed to the gang, bloodstains and the smell of rot telling the story clearly. Toward the center of it was a pit of coarse sand dyed red and mixed with shards of tooth and bone. Their fighting pit, where those of them waiting for the recruiters to pay a visit, trained for their chance to take up the mantle of the Green Blight, and possibly fight well enough to escape. There were decorations and trophies scattered all throughout the space, as well as discarded weapons and tools littering different corners.

On the surface, back in Rendhold, Dantes had known Orcs that were bookish scholars, Elves that were thuggish brutes, and gnomes with no head for numbers, but in the pit they all seemed to devolve into whatever the most common idea of themselves was. Then again, they were all criminals, that may have had more to do with it.

Dantes reached a trio of sleeping Orcs in an offshoot cave. He shifted back into his usual shape, the pain from it making him soundlessly wince. He looked at their sleeping faces, checking for a scared ear, a flower tattoo, or a neck with a healing spider bite. He found none, these werent the orcs Wane had asked him to spare. He drew his dagger, having traded his rapier with Jayson for a more practical weapon shortly after his meeting with Wane. He moved silently, finding doing so to be easier than it ever had been before, and knelt just behind the largest of the threes head. He covered the Orcs mouth and slit his throat in a single smooth motion.

When it was done, he frowned for a moment, watching the blood drain from him as the light left his eyes. Dantes had killed before. Hed killed in Rendhold, even before hed ended up in the Pit. It wasnt usually his first choice of solution, but hed never hesitated to resort to it when it was necessary or even just easier. Still, hed never done it so calmly as he just had. The way hed drawn the dagger across the mans throat had felt almost matter of fact.

He looked at Jacopo, who was keeping an eye on the other two Orcs. Jacopo had developed a taste for revenge through Dantes, but Dantes had discounted how Jacopo may be influencing him. Their connection wasnt a one way street, he knew that, but he hadnt considered how theyd affect one another in the long term. This kind of practical and relaxed killing was new to him, but from the feelings and impressions he received from Jacopo, that was how he performed most of his viole

He let out a breath, he didnt have time to think through it, and even if he did it wouldnt change what he was there to do. He moved to the next of them, and then the third. Once they were all dead he took the Mothers Reach seed from his coat pocket, feeling it radiate power from the daily dose of his blood hed been giving it, and held it up to each of the orcs necks, letting their blood flow over and be absorbed by it.

Thats when Dantes ordered the rats to join the fray.

Before the guards had reached him, they were swarmed by rats and roaches as their companions had been, and just as they had, they dropped their weapons, falling to the ground and tearing handfuls of roaches, and whole rats from themselves, but they couldnt do so faster than the vermin could be replaced.

Dantes moved quickly, watching as the gold in his roach and ratmarks rapidly dwindled. He moved from Orc to Orc, avoiding their flailing and doing his best to mortally wound them before moving on to the next one. It wasnt a grand battle, or an even brawl. It was an ugly execution.

When it was done all, but two of the orcs were dead. Theyd either suffocated under the press of fur and chitin, or Dantes had finished them himself with his dagger, which even though it was of fine elven make, had grown dull and chipped to near unusability. He leaned against a wall and panted heavily. With what little favor he had left he checked on Bluds location. He was on his way back, but Dantes still had time.

He moved from Orc to Orc, checking them for small valuables and coin, and let the rats and roaches hed been controlling do as they wanted with the bodies hoping to restore at least some of the favor hed lost. He directed them away from the two hed spared for Wane. Hed accidentally killed Dune, the one with the scarred ear, in the fray. He felt a tinge of guilt at that, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

Once he was done looting the bodies, netting almost thirty copper, a couple silver, and a silver ring, he fed the Mothers Reach seed on last time. After that, he took the orc closest to the exit, and spilled some of his blood onto his hands. He then walked to the entrance and wrote a short message for Blud, after which he took out a tea light and lit it underneath the message, to shine clear light on it.

Meet me in the Maw, - Dantes

He nodded at his handiwork, and he and Jacopo walked into the tunnels, covered in bloodstains with the seed pulsing with power and heat by their hearts.